The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connectors with receptacle terminals held within housings.
Electrical receptacle connectors are commonly used devices in various electronics applications, such as in appliances, HVAC systems, automobiles, computing systems, and the like. The receptacle connectors typically include a terminal that is crimped to an insulated wire, and a housing that holds the terminal. The terminal defines a receptacle or socket that is configured to receive a tab of a mating or plug connector during a mating operation to establish an electrical connection between the connectors.
The tabs or blades of the mating connector may be manufactured with different sizes, such as different thicknesses, for different applications. Likewise, the terminals of the receptacle connectors are manufactured with different receptacle sizes to accommodate the different tab thicknesses. Known receptacle connectors have different housings that are each configured to accommodate a corresponding one of the different terminal sizes. Producing multiple different housings for the different terminal sizes increases manufacturing costs versus using a single housing to accommodate multiple different sizes of terminals. Thus, it would be cost-effective to produce a single housing that can accommodate both large and small terminal sizes.
But, smaller-sized terminals cannot be reliably installed within the known larger-sized housings (associated with larger-sized terminals) because there would be too much clearance between the terminal and the walls and retention features of the housing. For example, the smaller terminal would be allowed an excessive amount of float within the housing that may allow the terminal to protrude outward from the housing beyond stop features configured to retain the terminal in the housing. Furthermore, due to the smaller size of the receptacle of the terminal, the housing may not properly guide the tab into the receptacle during mating, resulting in stubbing issues and/or mis-mating, which occurs when the tab is received between an outer surface of the terminal and an inner surface of the housing, instead of within the receptacle.
Accordingly, there is a need for an electrical receptacle connector with a single housing that can reliably retain different sizes of terminals within the housing.